ISLANDERS VICTORIOUS OVER SPEEDY KNIGHTS

ISLANDERS VICTORIOUS OVER SPEEDY KNIGHTS

The sun came out to shine for Mondays cross country meet between defending champions JFK Islanders and the St. John Knights. The Islanders, the girls four-time champions and boys two-time defending champions, easily defeated the St. John Knights overwhelming individual efforts by underclassmen stars Takumi ‘Curry’ Simon and Jenna Han.

The Knights, only having four eligible runners, were forced to forfeit their girls’ meet and lost to JFK 15-50. The Lady Islanders are still undefeated with a 7-0 record. The Islanders boys won 20-43 to improve to 6-1, dropping their only loss to the undefeated Sanchez Sharks.

Simon finished first place for the seventh consecutive meet holding off Elijah Reyes with a time of 18:45 to Reyes’ 18:53. There were 12 Islanders to follow with Beato Manglona (19:45), John Conducto (20:32), and Michael Murphy (20:36) rounding out the top 5.

“We are really happy as a team to get a win today. We wanted to run close as a pack and I think we achieved that for this race,” said Reyes. Reyes will be a key to helping the boys squad get the three-peat in the all-island meet. “We are confident but I’m sure it’s going to be a challenge, we are defiantly going to have to work for it. We just have to work on our mental game.”

Simon, a sophomore sensation, finished in the top 10 last year as a freshman at the all-island. He also said that he was going to do his best to finish high in the all-island to help his team. “I won every race so far, but I can’t get to confident. I just have to continue working hard at practice and pushing myself to help my team finish as high as possible,” said Simon.

In the girls meet, Maria Ollet (22:09), Genina Criss (22:32) and Lorraine Milan (22:52) paced their way to a home win. Jenna Han, the Knights’ freshman sensation clocked in at 23:30 to finish fourth overall.

The Islanders look to continue their dynasty and claim their fifth straight girls cross country championship. According to Ollet, the Islanders are not thinking about the all-island meet just yet. “We are going to push ourselves and have fun, we are not thinking about all-island right now. All long as we do our best, we will be satisfied with outcome,” said Ollet.

The Knights girls drop to 4-3, the boys are 1-6.

Results posted below photo gallery

Wendy’s players of the race JFK Islander Mariah Olet and St. John’s Knights Takumi Simon finished first in their respective divisions.

PHOTO GALLERY BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

Last, but not least, Elena Lagrimas finishes the race strong as her teammates cheer her on. (photo by Daniel Paran)

Exhausted, Maria Ollet makes it to the end as the first female to cross the finish line. (photo by Daniel Paran)

Anthony Susim makes his way through jungle terrain, approaching the end of the race. (photo by Daniel Paran)

Jenna Han keeps a steady pace, passing some of JFK along the way. (photo by Daniel Paran)

Tommy Imazu (JFK #128) and Aaditya Raj Kumar (St. John #318) try to overtake each other at the corner of the track. (photo by Daniel Paran)

JFK’s Elijah Reyes tries to take the lead as he enters the grassy part of the course. (photo by Daniel Paran)

Takumi Simon of St. John leads the pack throughout the entire course and finishes at first. (photo by Daniel Paran)